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Marine wakes up to Gabby.
As is, Marine isn't a fan of waking up. She finds it hard to open her eyes, the lights always glaringly bright. Not to mention how groggy she always feels when she has to get up out of bed. Still, she thinks waking up to Gabby is one of the best ways to wake up, huddled in warmth and affection right from the start.
Most of the time, they pull the blinds shut before bed. Gabby has no issues with it, and Marine likes the morning darkness that gives her eyes time to adjust. But, evidently, Gabby's been up for a bit, and must've determined Marine was asleep enough to open the blinds. She can't find it in herself to be upset though, not when the sunlight forms a halo around Gabby that makes her look angelic. Marine can just barely see the sunlight glinting off Gabby's glasses.
Gabby is in her own bubble, sitting on the bed, legs stretched out. Her guitar is resting on her lap as she hums softly to herself, plucking at strings and letting them ring out. Next to her, HB rests her head on Gabby's lap, purring contently.
Marine had bought her the guitar for her birthday the year before, right when Gabby had been obsessively talking about wanting to learn an instrument. She still remembers exactly how Gabby lit up, grin bordering on barbaric as she took the instrument in her hands.
She doesn't make her presence known, not yet anyway. Marine knows, both intuitively and from experience, that Gabby is very likely to stop if she knows Marine is awake. Marine is content to listen, eyes shut and letting the melodies of Gabby's guitar roll over her like a warm blanket tucking her into bed.
Gabby is, thankfully, oblivious. In fact, she's so oblivious that Marine ends up falling back asleep from how warm the music sounds, drawn in by how much it feels like home.
"Not awake…" Gabby murmurs to herself when she eventually places her guitar back on its stand and goes to check on Marine. She furrows her brows and checks the time—it's a little past 9, so it's not weird that Marine isn't up, but it's not like her to stay asleep for so long without waking once. Usually, she'll wake up a couple of times and fall back asleep. Most of the time, Gabby catches her in the act and begs her to wake up (usually to no avail).
Still, Gabby thinks nothing of it, shrugging and walking off to go prepare breakfast.
For the second time that day, Marine wakes up to Gabby.
This time, her fiancé isn't with her in the room, but she knows the sound of Gabby talking to herself in the kitchen, narrating her actions as she tries to plan ahead. She hears Gabby's light footsteps on the wooden floors paired with the sound of sizzling, and it tells Marine everything she needs to know.
With a content smile, Marine adjusts her position slightly, squirming under the duvet to get comfortable again. Then, she closes her eyes and lets sleep take over once more.
In the kitchen, Gabby's got a lot going on. She's cooking eggs for Marine while the toaster makes the bagels warm. She's prepped all the veggies for Marine's bagel—tomato and avocado—which meant all she had to do after the eggs were done was spread cream cheese and assemble the whole thing. It's easiest to talk herself through it so she doesn't miss anything, though HB keeps looking at her like she's crazy for narrating her own life.
As for her own breakfast, she's already washed and cut strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, granola and honey waiting on the counter and yogurt waiting in the fridge.
Unrivaled, Gabby thinks, was definitely the right move. They hadn't been able to do this in ages. To live with each other—really, actually live. This hadn't been a reality since Lyon, and even then, they were constantly travelling. This felt more like a fantasy than a reality to Gabby, something she prayed for in her dreams as a kid.
Back when Phee had reached out, she knew rather quickly she'd want to talk to Marine first. She knew Marine would support her no matter what choice she made, but being able to see each other during the season was always a priority. And with the way Project B was talking to Marine, Gabby wasn't sure if she'd be able to. At the end of the day, Singapore was a pretty long way away.
A few days after receiving the offer from Unrivaled, Marine had called her, French flying out so fast it was nearly unintelligible. Gabby caught two words: Unrivaled and offer.
It was sealed the second that phone call happened. They contacted Phee at the same time, and Gabby received a teasing message about it, but she frankly could've cared less about what anyone had to say. They were going to play in Unrivaled.
Now, it was a little under halfway through the Unrivaled season. And Gabby? Gabby was ecstatic now that everything had fallen into place the way she'd wanted it to. She woke up with Marine next to her, ate every meal with her (mostly, except for the Valkyrie and Husky outings she'd been roped into, and Marine's Liberty outings.), talked to her between practices, went to the weight room with her—really, where Marine went, Gabby did too. And vice versa.
There's nothing better than this, Gabby decides, sliding the egg off the pan and onto a plate. She grabs the bagels with a pair of tongs, spends a minute (or ten) struggling to arrange the bagel properly, then assembles her own yogurt and granola bowl.
Gabby goes back into the bedroom, leaving the breakfast on the table. Marine hates anything getting on the bed, including food. When she gets there, she finds her fiancée is rolled up into a log, wrapped by their duvet like sushi with only the tips of her hair visible. She snorts, snapping a picture before moving to wake her up. She does so carefully—waking Marine is equivalent to provoking a sleeping bear.
It's the third time Marine gets to wake up to Gabby, and she's the least grumpy Gabby has ever seen her when she's fresh out of bed. She blinks sleep from her eyes, catching glimpses of Gabby through blurry eyes that hurt to open. She smiles despite the uncomfortable feeling, sitting upright and trying to force her eyes to wake up faster.
"Hi, Gabs." She mumbles, voice still ragged from sleep.
"Hi. Made you breakfast." Gabby is only a little bit not used to getting to see Marine like this every day, but Marine gives her hand a grateful squeeze, not even noticing her fiancée's slight awkwardness.
"You're too good to me, really. Thank you." Marine rubs her eyes once more and they finally focus properly. She smiles at Gabby, dopey and soft. She's not awake enough to care about how much of a lovesick idiot she must look like at the moment.
"Let me go brush my teeth then we can go eat." Marine presses a kiss to Gabby's cheek and slides off their bed, disappearing into the bathroom.
"I'm quite a big fan of this." Gabby says. Their legs are touching under the table as they sit side by side and fuel themselves for the day. The day is as calm as it gets for them—not a thing to do besides be together. It's like a dream, something Marine fantasised about.
"Yeah?" Marine turns her head with a soft half smile, one that tells Gabby she's biting back an even bigger smile.
"Yeah. Being with you is the best."
"Someone's feeling smooth today, huh?" Marine teases, and Gabby flushes bright enough Marine can see it.
"Just in love." Gabby shakes her head, sticking her tongue out a little.
"You know what?" Gabby calls out for the first time in a bit. They've been spending the day lounging around and doing…well, nothing. Gabby had been busying herself with decorating their walls because "they lack character" and Marine had been scrolling on her phone while offering up suggestions from her place on the bed. HB ran around between them, moving between Marine's side and getting in Gabby's way.
"Yeah?" Marine shuts her phone off and gives Gabby her fullest attention, as always.
"This is the first time we've been in the same place for a few months at a time since Lyon." Really, this had been a thought on Gabby's mind since they'd first signed, but she wasn't very good at voicing her thoughts sometimes. Even silly ones, like this. She finds it's easier when she has something in her hands to distract her as she speaks.
Marine pauses, thinks about it, then nods. "Hm. I guess so. Didn't think of that. It's pretty cool." Marine agrees.
Gabby rolls the Blu-Tack between two fingers then attaches it to the wall. "Do you think about how this is how our future could be?"
"Yeah. Quite a lot, actually." Marine admits.
"I'm a fan of it." Gabby offers.
"So am I." Marine sounds…proud isn't the right word, but she sounds boastful. Ready to show off this reality of hers to everyone. She's worked hard for it, and she would be more than happy if this was everyday life.
Gabby sticks the last thing on the wall—a photo strip from a photo booth they'd gone to during 2025 All-star. The pictures, in black and white, from top to bottom:
1. Them smiling side by side, Marine's nose scrunched and Gabby's hand forming bunny ears on her head.
2. Marine kissing Gabby on the cheek while Gabby's eyes are closed, and she's smiling like a fool.
3. Them pretending to shoot the camera, prop sunglasses on—courtesy of the photo booth place—faces expressionless.
4. Them kissing, Marine's hand on her braids and Gabby's hand on Marine's shoulder.
She still remembers every picture. The timer had been so quick between pictures that they'd planned out all of it, frame by frame. They'd even done a practice round.
Gabby smiles proudly at the wall, then turns to face Marine with that same smile. Her fiancée looks just as proud of her as she feels.
"What'd ya think?" Gabby joins Marine on the bed, sitting down cross legged and admiring her work.
"Very good." Marine kisses her temple for good measure. "It's perfect, Gabby."